The Memphis appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1886-1890, 1887-04-27
SECRETARY LAuAR ON JOHN @.
CALHOUN.

9 ECRRTARY LAuAR ON JOHN q.
CALHOUN.
Every man interested in the truth
Of history will feel himself personally
indebted to Mr.. Secretary Lamar for
the grafton he delivered in Charleston
yesterday upon the life and public
services OF John O. Calhoun.
1t is fair and candid
statement Of the principles for which
that statesman contended aud the
policies he originated and supported,
1t is the full measure Of the great Car
Gilman, whose love for the Union was
strong and unfaltering to the last hour
OF his life. His own position consid-
cred, and with the changes Of the past
twenty-six years before him, Mr.. La
mars was q difficult task. The name
Calhoun, to the masses especially,
who we're educated in an OPP
posing political and sectional IA tn is
the embodiment Of notification and
secession. For the Secretary OF the
Interior OF Mr.. Cleveland's Cabinet TO
eulogizs him was, therefore, to en-.
counter the danger at least, Of misrep-
resentation, or to put it mildly, mis-
understanding. Bitter partisans take
the truths OF history from
even the Bsncrofts and McMssters
with many misgivings; from
a statesman, however fair,
they take them with the Impotence
born OF doubt. For = Southern DEM
cratic statesman to speak Of Calhoun
in terms Of eulogy is to the average
Republican matter Of course. 1t is
what they would lock for, especially
in Mr.. Lamar, identified as he was
with the secession movement. Any
thing less would be disappointment.
They cannot think that he could be
truthful in the historic sense in pre-.
senting the facts OF the Carolinian's
life so that, logically, they alone would
speak his eulogy. They dismiss the
subject and the man with the sentences
that since he set up a theory Of our
government and presented an inter-
probation Of the constitution differing
from theirs there was no good in him,
nor truth, and he could not be sub
ject for eulogy. They have gibbeted
Calhoun as in the early days
OF the Republic the name
OF Jefferson was gibbeted and
held up for general execi alton.
To the monarchy men" OF the
post revolutionary period, as Brock
enridge called them, Jefferson was
the generalization Of all the horrors
and radicalisms OF the French revou-
ton, a sSus culotte and q lsveler.
No epithet applied TO the anarchists
Of Chicago was half so sweeping as
those applied to the Father OF Amer
lean Democracy, the immortal author
Of the Declaration Of Independence.
As with Jefferson, 80 with Calhoun /;
and as with him 20 with his pupil and
friend, Jefferson Davis. He, too, has
been dreuched with brutal villiHca.
ton, because he was the elected head
Of the Confederacy, inspired by Gal.
hOun's theory, so logical, so compre
hensive, so persuasively convincing
to oil candidy considerable students
and thinkers. The mere par.
tisan whose narrow view Ia
limited to party purposes
will not yield the possibility Of truth,
fairness or justice in what Mr.. Lamar
has said oil Calhoun. To do 30 much
he will say would be to surrender
cherished principles and give up all hi
holds dear. He cannot see that his
tory will make no reckoning OF hi
aurries and anxieties, or that wher
he has persisted utterly from III,
earth, like millions before him
the historian, following with un
erring Oteps the tequent OF
der and progress of the Republi
will call many zane from the oh
security to which he consigned 1t an,
dwell in terms of eulogy upon other
whom he execrated. The history Q
the United States could not be writer
without many chapters upon John
Calhoun, and we doubt il hereafter
will ever be touched withou
reference to the historic estimst
OF his services during crit
cal period in the life Of the Natio
made yesterday by So ,retsry Lamar.
is an estimate the South will adopt fc
all time, and is the one il can in jui
tics to him and to itself offer as tn
completest vlndicalion OF his the oriel
policies and purposes in government
and Of Its own endeivor to set up
confederation that should rest prime
pally upon the guarantees thu
in the Federal Constitution proved
be as 80 many ropes OF sand. Mr.. Lam,
has in this Grafton justified the 9,
Tectancy OF his fellow citizens ever,
where and he can feel sure It will fin
ap'ace among The greatest of simill
efforts ever made by one America
upon another. He has offended I
patty or sectional pr judice, has CO..
cealed no opinion, Concilisted no pa
tisan, INDUCED in no speci
pleading, nor gratifed ar
political prediction. He Co
hued himself to the truth, lived for
time within the compass of gre
life, in perfect accord with it, and
sympathy with the simplicity, Il
truthfulness, the Transparent